Dance scholarship as practiced in the United States in the twentieth century has witnessed significant growth and development. Much of the early scholarship in dance focused on major Western theatrical dance forms and selected dance traditions from around the world. As the century progressed, an ever widening interest in dance as it was defined and redefined by artists and scholars in related fields of study such as anthropology, philosophy, history, somatic methods, dance science and music broadened the field in new and interesting ways. What constituted the subject of dance as well as how it would be viewed, interpreted, understood and evaluated was being questioned, explored and interrogated. Dance scholars employed varied modes of inquiry and research methodologies to their work. For many, scholarly outlets were limited to conferences and journals in related fields of study. While they often received encouragement from their colleagues in these disciplines, their scholarship was just as likely to be viewed as curious, interesting but marginal.

Beginning in the 1960s, some of these dance scholars recognized the need to form their own scholarly organizations that would support conferences, research and publications in the field of Dance Studies. CORD and SDHS were two such organizations that were formed to address these issues. Initially, they modeled themselves on their sister organizations in related fields like anthropology, musicology, history and theatre. They provided the necessary leadership to encourage succeeding generations of dance scholars to create a breadth and depth in the field of Dance Studies that continues to provide a strong intellectual body of work in this field of study.

Within the past fifty years, the image of the individual dance scholar struggling and working on his or her own in a related field has given way to a community of dance scholars who meet on a regular basis to share, critique and foster new work in this now established and recognized field of study. Consequently, there has been a significant growth in dance scholarship.

However, new and emerging technologies are creating challenges and opportunities for how dance research is conducted and how it is evaluated and disseminated to its readership and its audience. The combined impact of internationalizing graduate and undergraduate curriculum in most of our major universities and colleges along with the effects of globalization in how we understand and define our field of study have created a “moment of crisis” for how dance scholars organize themselves in terms of professional organizations like CORD, SDHS and others.